Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	people_n	power_n	4,914	5	5.4287	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41384	The fundamentals of the Protestant religion asserted by reason as well as Scriptvre written in French by the famous Monsieur de Gombaud ; made English by Sidnet Lodge ; to which is added his Letters to Monsieur de Militiere and other personages of the French-court upon the same subject.	Gombauld, Jean Ogier de, d. 1666.; Lodge, Sidney, b. 1648 or 9.	1682 (1682)	Wing G1024; ESTC R14808	82,659	180

finding the first or last which alone merits the name of Divinity To what are we come that we must even now with Industry endeavour to prove the Truth of the being of a God! Is not this indeed to affront men as reasonable as our selves to shew 'em what each particular Sence does constantly prove to ' em Is not this to teach those to see who have their Eyes open and tell others they have the use of Reason who profess themselves men Shall we add to these Considerations the frequently repealed Arguments of those who have undertaken so high but just and reasonable a Defence In effect if there was no God How could the World be Could it be the Workmanship and the Workman of it self Could it be before it was How can these agree and yet but the same World If it be eternal and is independent on any first Cause that Order which we observe and must be an effect of admirable Wisdom with all those Powers which are differently communicated to each part would in a manner prove what some have fancied That it is God himself For it is not in the least probable that it's Beauty it 's Order and Duration can be the effects of blind and confus'd Chance Can we imagine that from thence could proceed such long and regular Successions of Time and Motion Can we attribute to that so much Care and Wisdom as to be able to make so different Causes tend to the same Effect This certainly under another Name would be God himself and his Blasphemers would meet in every place what their guilty Souls are afraid of finding any where otherwise What is this Fortune but a vain and insignificant Title an imaginary Idol that exists but in our Fancies to which we erroniously attribute such Effects of whose Causes we are ignorant She appears to us less or greater according to our Proportion of Knowledge and if we could but free the World from Ignorance the Notion of Fortune would be laid aside 'T is then the Deity of the ignorant which no wise man adores and I cannot but wonder how those who plead for her can believe themselves reasonable since according to the Opinion they have of all things they must confess they were made by Chance and consequently that they move act and speak so There are amongst these some who pretend to believe a God but at the same time make him careless and idle slothful and wholly unconcern'd in the Affairs of the Universe at least in all sublunary things imagining perhaps says one that this would be too great Trouble to him As if their Impieties could give him any Comfort or Satisfaction Is not this to deny whilst they own him and boldly to confine the Actions of an infinite Power Is not this to make to themselves a God who cannot barely act as a Man to allow him Understanding without Counsel a Will without Freedom Goodness without Communication in a Word a Being without a Being and less than that of the Elements which comes nearest to no Being at all But not to insist farther on the universal chain of Causes with their Effects which plainly demonstrate that things of the sublimest nature are assisted by those of the lowest and that these necessarily depend on the same Wisdom and Power by which they are made and conserv'd Who is he that in his Anger chastises both Kings and People that removes the Scepter from one and gives it to another that overturns Empires and in an instant changes the Face of Estates and to shew that this is done by his Power has long since foretold it by the Mouth of his Messengers and Prophets Who was it that punish'd the Sins of men by a miraculous Flood acknowledged by all the World and by whose Advice was one only Family saved from it Who was it that promis'd such a Deluge should never return and who has so faithfully kept his Promise What Spirit foresaw the coming of the Messias three or four thousand years of whom the Prophets have so particularly spoke as if they as well as the Apostles had seen him From whom but God himself or some Angel sent from him were those Predictions of the Posterity of Abraham of the Throne of David and of that Lamp which should be kept in his Family of the dispersing and rejecting of the Jews and the Conversion of the Gentiles If it be told me that there are Mathematicians Astrologers and Wise men who foretell things to come I must ask by what hand they are writ in the Heavens in such Characters that men can read 'em and who has plac'd the Signs in the Stars or rather their Vertues and Causes which the same men cannot comprehend It must needs be that those who are not touch'd with these Considerations are blinded with Passion that prevents their Reason who from Custom become obstinate and from Ignorance stupid We find that there are many very wise and knowing in all worldly things nay are ignorant and insensible of nothing but Divine ones But if I am not deceived most bear in their Breast both their Accuser and Judge and will earlier or later be forc'd to say as others have done We are so weary of the ways of Iniquity that we can endure 'em no longer CHAP. III. THUS whatever presents it self to our sight do's speak of a God and prove that he is but what he is neither all those Objects nor all our Reason can discover to us Yet so much as we know of him is sufficient to make us believe and worship what we don 't perfectly know Let it be then that the continu'd course of Causes and Effects is not infinite that all things either reach or tend visibly to their End that from the Ancientest of Books in respect of which all others are but new and imperfect we know the Origine and Rise of all Nations That the Powers of the Heavens are become weak that the Age and Strength of Men are impaired in comparison of that account we receive of 'em in Sacred and Profane History it does evidently appear that God created the World and for an additional Perfection to his greatest Work made Man after his own Image that is wholly conformable to his Will not in Essence but Imitation and as Perfect and as Happy as the Noblest Creature could be He was plac'd in an honourable Station between Beasts and Angels was the Bond of the Universe the End of all created things over which he had eternally commanded had he been only but obedient to his Creator But not content with those abundant Favours he had received rashly aspires to a degree above his Sovereign endeavours to rise higher than the Top it self and aiming at something in nothing was near returning to that first Nothing from whence he came How strangely bold What high Presumption is it to covet being equal with God! What base Incredulity to accuse him of falshood or Envy What horrid Ingratitude and Rebellion to

Opinion of their Belief if either a little before or presently after I had not discover'd their being as it were poyson'd with unhappy Traditions that did not at all savour of the Purity of the Gospel These Wise men have put me often in mind of those Fools who after having for some time discours'd very seriously could not forbear returning to their first Folly Here is I know not what mixture of good and bad things I know not what Mysteries of which they have some sort of Conception but cannot express Here are discover'd those Tares the Devil sowed in the Church that Leaven of the Pharisees the poyson of Humane Inventions which make us now say what the Sons of the Prophets did in the time of Elisha There is Death in the Pot 2 Kings 4. v. 40. They all equally betray God's Cause their designs being only to preach up themselves and proceeding from a wilfull Blindness to the efficacy of Errour at length come to believe what they endeavour to make others do They pretend truly to preach Jesus Christ crucify'd that it may be said they preach him that his Name may be made use of to their praise and set a greater Reputation on their Sermons But they plainly demonstrate they do not absolutely believe in Him since after this they fail not to preach up a St. Fraencis a St. Dominic to whom they attribute as much Power and as many Miracles as to Jesus Christ himself The highest Points of their Divinity are grounded more on Aristotle than St. Paul and these mighty Defenders of the Christian Faith have no greater Masters than Pagans and Infidels They make by their Discourses the Simplicity of the Gospel pompous and disguise all Plainness and Sincerity so that when I have well observ'd em they always appear'd to me such as Hucksters and Mountebanks which corrupt the Word of God 2 Cor. 2. 17. But if this Comparison seems too injurious to 'em and that you desire one more favourable and lofty I must tell you that I place 'em amongst Angels but those who bear the name of Wormwood who make the Waters bitter and destroy a great part of the World I place 'em amongst those who are permitted to do Miracles to shake the Powers of Heaven to make the Stars fall from it to tempt to seduce to perplex as much as 't is possible for 'em the very Elect. We have had so many warnings of these things as if they came to pass only to make good the Scripture that has foretold ' em This is the true Lamp that directs us in the Discovery of Satan's Character amidst so much Brightness they borrow to dazle us If we do hear any thing that is pure and holy from 'em their false applying of it and those subalternate ends they serve by it does presently make their Design plain all their seeming Reality does not prevent our easie perception of the Mystery of Iniquity I don't mean those whom you your self approve not of whose Words and Actions are so light and extravagant that their Business seems to be rather the entertaining of their Hearers with some pleasant diverting Discourse than the correcting or instructing of 'em who rather act the part of Comedians than seriously do that of Preachers I don't mean such who spend their time in Conversation with the Ladies who run from House to House so much the more eagerly since what they are commanded by God to be Husbands of one Wise is look'd on as a Crime by 'em and therefore the more strictly forbid by men There are none set their Affections more on Secular things than these Church-men nor any those of this World more than they who pretend to abandon it I know very well that Bishops are advised to be free and familiar with those they have the Care of this heretofore signified that they should entertain 'em kindly visit 'em upon Occasion exhort and comfort ' em But now the meaning of it is That they must play with some hunt with others treat splendidly and keep a Noble Table In these things the Revenue of so many rich Bishopricks is employ'd and seem to be bestow'd on many of 'em that they may the better be enabled to live at Court whilst their Flocks know no one so little as their Pastor Must that which is the Art of all Arts the Cure of Souls the Administration of holy Things be now the Profession of the Ambitious the Prodigal the Covetous and such who addict themselves to Pleasures What Edification can we expect from such who aim at nothing but their own Advantage and preach only that by that they may rise to these high Preferments they so earnestly covet The passionate Desire by which you so frequently urge me to hear these men puts me in mind of that great Zeal the Wives of Solomon had for their false Gods and who were never quiet till they had prevail'd on him to consent to their Idolatry You would have me submit my Judgment to that of such numbers of honest men who both approve of and follow 'em not considering that the true Ministers of the Gospel meet not with so much favour from the Princes of the People or the Multitude No no their sincere and plain Profession allows 'em not to procure so much the Approbation of the World they stick firmly to the true Rule they expound the Scriptures by themselves they intrude not on things they have not seen and as the Prophets and Apostles deliver not what they have not receiv'd You here see Stephanie what a too fond Opinion of your own Belief a no less violent than superstitious Piety common to the devout Zealous Women of the Times have provoked you to make me say 'T is too short an Answer in Comparison of what I could have return'd and it may be longer than what you desir'd to have had But if you cannot consent to my Opinion be so kind at least to approve of my Obedience who assure you that I am FINIS